(NBC) - California embattled unemployment benefits agency said Wednesday it has cleared about 246,000 of its more than 1.6 million backlogged claims following a two-week “reset” where it stopped taking new applications so it could improve its technology.
But the agency said it would be January before it clears the backlog, frustrating state lawmakers who questioned the agency's director during a legislative hearing on Wednesday. Sharon Hilliard, executive director of the Employment Development Department, said some people have been waiting as long as five months to get benefits.
“To be honest it’s very hard for us to tell our constituents that we have 100 percent certainty that this will be resolved in the next couple of months given the track record,” said Assemblyman David Chiu, a Democrat from San Francisco.
Hilliard said it will take that long to clear the backlog because “the work is very complex and complicated.”
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